Strategic Plan

Strategic Plan 2018-19

The Young Liberals are Australia’s largest youth political Movement but we must do more to be the most effective.

Over the following year, Vice President Mitchell Collier and I will ensure our Movement is the most effective campaigning, policy and advocacy force in Australia by implementing this strategic plan. The plan includes 6 key pillars:

Under our leadership, we will be a more active and activist Movement by:

This is the most detailed vision from an incoming President in a generation that commits us to be an active and activist Movement that is focused on our values and invests in our membership as our greatest asset.

It sets out a clear vision for how our Movement can be even stronger and work more collaboratively to achieve our goals of electing Liberal Governments and advancing our shared Liberal values.

This plan is optimistic and ambitious yet achievable and the standard against which I want to be marked as your President.

Our beliefs are the very foundation of our success as a Movement and we must be unashamed champions for what we believe in and, vitally, why we believe in it.

Without knowing it, most young Australians are instinctive supporters of our values—reward for effort, aspiration, opportunity and smaller government. Yet we have not made a strong enough link for our generation between those instinctive Australian values and our beliefs. This must change.

Under Former President Chandler, our Movement readopted the We Believe statement authored by Sir Robert Menzies.

This year, the Movement will promote our lasting values to a new generation by showing the importance of aspiration and reward for effort.

We will readopt the Liberal Party Logo as the central design feature of all our branding so it’s clear who we are.

Far too often, our conservative instincts make us too modest in celebrating success and putting flags in the ground to mark our territory. All too often we take comfort in having won the battle of ideas in the past without thinking about the battles of the future and claiming our own history of achievement. The battle of ideas is never won, therefore we must continually make the case for our values for each new generation.

This year, our Movement will actively and enthusiastically engage in the battle of ideas to combat the resurgence of socialism from the left and promote our values. We will celebrate the successes of Liberal Governments from Menzies to Fraser, Howard to Abbott and Turnbull, there are many things of which our Party can be proud and we must celebrate them to highlight the alternative.

We will raise the profile of our Movement and actively campaign and advocate for our values as espoused in the We Believe statement and their relevance to young, aspirational Australians.

We will actively make the case for our values including capitalism, good government and our Judeo Christian heritage and values including through new and innovative social media campaigns to encourage support for the Liberal Party and new members for our Movement.

Unless we have Liberal Governments at a Federal, State and Territory level, our policy priorities not only cannot be implemented but we will see lurches to the socialist-left from a Labor Party that is hopelessly compromised.

While we are the largest youth political Movement in Australia, there is room for improvement in our campaigning prowess as we compete against not only Young Labor and the Young Greens but also GetUp and trade unions.

In 2017, the Prime Minister joined President Depiazzi and Vice President Manuatu to launch Victory2020, the Movement’s response to the Robb Review that focuses on upskilling and increasing engagement.

Last year, President Depiazzi and Vice President Manuatu embarked on an important cultural shift through the Federal Executive in highlighting the importance of the Young Liberal Movement’s involvement in every campaign in providing not only boots on the ground but also important strategic and tactical advice. As a result, it is now universally accepted that our Movement is the preeminent expert body within our party on campaigning.

This year, the Movement will continue the implementation of Victory2020 including through our International EDO programme to ensure the best possible practice. We will make a number of changes to the EDO programme to ensure its focus on development.

In addition to this, after the March state elections in Tasmania and South Australia, the Federal Movement will convene the first ever National Campaigning Summit to not only upskill our key campaigners but also share experiences and ensure that on every campaign we are using the best possible practice.

Further, the Movement will implement a new Kickstarter Grants programme to support Young Liberals running for Parliament. As a Movement we should unashamedly support our own to make an even greater contribution to their community.

We will also work more closely with the Federal and Divisional Secretariats to ensure that the Movement is properly integrated with campaigns to achieve the best possible outcomes.

Over the last year, our Movement took an activist approach to advocating for our own policy platform to be adopted by the Government—an approach that was highly successful. As a result of our policy based campaigns and direct advocacy to the Prime Minister, the Ministry and the Party Room we were able to achieve some important policy wins including:

In 2017, President Depiazzi and Vice President Manuatu worked hard to break the cultural perception of the Young Liberals only being a campaigning outfit and delivering no benefit in the policy development process. This perception was quickly broken and we were pleased to have an open-door approach, including directly with the Prime Minister.

In 2018, it is vital that we continue this approach and lead the charge on important policy priorities for our Movement.

This year, we will continue our campaign on the ticking debt bomb and step up our efforts on the Student Tax.

We will also more actively pursue a number of other policy priorities passed by our Federal Convention that are actively in line with our Liberal values.

This work will be complemented with a new advocacy approach by seeking to lift the profile of the Movement and reach more young Australians who share our values. Unless we are engaged in the battle of ideas and prepared to make the case for good policy, it is difficult to justify our strong direct interventions.

As a Movement, it is vital that we not only make the case behind closed doors but also demonstrate a willingness to make the case more broadly.

The thousands of ordinary men and women who are members of our Movement are our lifeblood and we must invest in our membership to ensure that our Movement continues to grow and prosper.

In 2017, President Depiazzi and Vice President Manuatu implemented Development Grants to provide a means for Divisions to fund and support projects to enhance and train their membership. This programme will continue with additional resourcing through the Young Liberal Movement Trust.

In addition to this key measure, it is important that all of our programmes have a key development outcome for the individual, their division and our Movement as a whole. Starting immediately, there will be further changes to the EDO programme to emphasise the development outcome and over the course of the term, there will be new measures that support upskilling our members and developing their skills.

Building on the successful work in 2017 to update the Federal Movement’s regulations and online presence, in 2018 the Federal Movement will seek to further improve the administration of our Movement.

At present, all Divisional Movements and the Federal Movement are separately administered and often overlap and duplicate a number of processes and providers at great cost.

This year, the Federal Movement will lead a review to identify any cost savings or overall benefits that can be realised by sharing services. With every division relying on hard-won donations, it is vital that we explore ways to achieve the same or better outcomes for our Movement at a cheaper cost.

Our Movement proudly boasts founding membership of the International Young Democratic Union (IYDU), an organisation established for the promotion of centre-right democratic values throughout the world.

In recent times, our Movement has had a strong level of engagement with the IYDU including having had former Federal President Simon Breheny serve as the Chairman and are pleased to see that the IYDU has recently reunified into a single organisation—an impressive achievement delivered by Chairman Breheny.

In addition to our engagement with the IYDU, in 2017 President Depiazzi and Vice President Manuatu launched the International EDO programme which sent Young Liberals to the United Kingdom and New Zealand to learn first hand new campaigning skills with a brief to bring them back to Australia—something that has been successfully implemented through the Victory2020 programme.

In 2018-19, we will refocus our international engagement on the vital skill development of our Movement as well as sharing our values, primarily, within our region while continuing our engagement with the IYDU.

We will work with our counterparts in New Zealand to bring a renewed focus to the pacific region of the benefits of having centre-right youth Movements and of our democratic values.

We will also work more closely with our counterparts in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States to prioritise the promotion of our values in the IYDU.

There will also be a continuation of our International EDO programme with an even greater focus on development and ensuring that we are using the best possible campaign strategies on every campaign.

About Us

The Young Liberal Movement is the youth wing of the Liberal Party of Australia, open to anyone aged between 16 and 31 years.